Wait, There Are Twin Sisters Vying for Gymnastics Gold?

Contrary to what you might've read in the press accounts, there are more than three teams competing in today's women's final. It's not just the U.S., China, and Russia out there (though that's probably all that NBC will show you). Perhaps if we're very lucky, we'll get to see at least a few performances from the elegant Dutch team and two of their stars, the Wevers twins: Lieke and Sanne, both 24.

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These gymnasts, like the rest of the Dutch team, are classy. They don't perform the absolute hardest, most acrobatic skills in the women's competition, but they dance like everybody's watching. (It's the Olympics so everyone is.)

Here's what you need to know about the Wevers twins before they take to the mat and everyone takes to Googling them.

#1: They seem to be always trading off injuries

Though they were born on the same day (just six minutes apart!) and have the same coach (their father, Vincent), the fraternal twins haven't exactly shared the same competitive fortune. Sanne made her major competition debut at the Junior European Championships in 2004 and has competed at several major meets since then. Lieke, on the other hand, was plagued by injuries and mono and had to wait until 2009 to make her own first appearance in major competition.

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Since 2009, it seems like the two have been volleying injuries back and forth and have rarely been in top form at the same time. "When I competed at a big event, Lieke was injured and vice versa," Sanne said in 2015.

First to go down in a major way was Lieke, who tore her ACL right before the 2009 European Championships. It took her nearly two years to recover from the knee injury; meanwhile Sanne had been in the stands, nursing an injured elbow. When Sanne recovered, she represented the Netherlands at the 2010 world championships in Rotterdam...but then she was sidelined by a shoulder injury, which required surgery.

Lieke didn't return to competition until 2011, when she competed at the world championships in Tokyo, where Lieke helped the Dutch team place 13th. (Sanne sat out with another injury.) Then, after the Olympic Test Event in 2012 where the Dutch failed to qualify a team to the Olympics, Lieke was injured her wrists, which required yet another surgery and even more rehab time.

#2: They love finally being able to compete on the same team

It wasn't until 2014 that both gymnasts were healthy at the same time and selected to compete together on the Dutch team, at the 2014 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. This was a full ten years after Sanne made her international debut as a junior for the Netherlands.

"Everyone had seen us apart from each other at competitions so when we did stand there together, it felt very special," Lieke said in The Hard Way to Success.

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#3: They're known for their turns

The Wevers have found an innovative way to add difficulty to their exercises—turns.

In 2010, Sanne had a turn named after her in the Code of Points: a double turn with her leg held at horizontal.

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Think that turns on the balance beam aren't hard? Clearly you haven't watched a lot of gymnastics. It is practically obligatory for gymnasts to wobble their way through turns on the balance beam. At the 2016 Olympic Trials, Gabby Douglas fell off the beam doing only a single turn with her leg held at horizontal.

#4: They're hitting their stride

Gymnastics is known for very young athletes, so it might be surprising to learn of female gymnasts hitting their stride not in their teens, but in their early 20s. But that's exactly what has happened for the twins. After a series of early injuries, they've stayed healthy since 2014 and have gotten better and better since then. In fact, it's been in the past two years of their careers that they've won their biggest accolades.

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At the inaugural European Games in Baku in 2015, Lieke came away with multiple medals including a gold medal for the balance beam.

And Sanne won the bronze medal on the uneven bars at the European Championships and capped off the season with silver medal on her specialty, the balance beam, at the world championships in Glasgow.

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In 2015, they also helped their team earn a spot at the Olympics for the first time since 1976.

I was in the SSE Hydro, the site of the 2015 World Championships, for that occasion and their excitement and joy when they realized what they had pulled off was palpable in the press seats. The team had put together a virtually flawless performance and accomplished the goal, which many considered a long shot, of sending a team to Rio.

For the twins, though, Rio will probably be the end of the road. "We don't have much time left in gymnastics. We are 23 and Rio is our ultimate goal to pursue together," Lieke said in an interview in 2015. But they plan to go out in style.

#5: It's actually possible they might walk away with a medal

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Well, only Sanne has a realistic shot at a medal in Rio: She qualified for the event final on the balance beam so she will be vying against the Biles, Laurie Hernandez, and Flavia Saraiva (the top three qualifiers) for a place on the podium.

Sanne has greatly upped the difficulty ante in the run-up to Rio in an attempt to earn an individual medal for the Dutch women. While it's unlikely she can take the top spot away fromBiles, beam is always unpredictable and if Sanne has a really great day and if some of the favorites falter, she can sneak in for a medal. (Which is precisely what happened in 2015.)

If so, we know her teammates will also be cheering her on—with Lieke as the loudest cheerleader, of course.

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